


Interrogation

by Torched22



Category: Smallville
Genre: Confessions, Lies, M/M, Truth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:32:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torched22/pseuds/Torched22
Summary: Clark and Lex get kidnapped. Lie...and face serious consequences. Tell the truth...and face possibly greater consequences. There is no right way to get out of this one.





	1. Chapter 1

Being kidnapped was nothing new to Lex. The way his eyes refused to open, tongue as dry as the Nevada desert, heart thumping loudly in his chest. He moved his hands, tried to wrench them apart, but to no avail. A drumbeat of pain echoed in his head and he groaned in response. Returning to consciousness was like trudging through waist high mud. Sleep and darkness clung to him, it's suction curled fingers, begging for his return. 

Part of him wanted to give in, lie back and sink into the oblivion. Kidnapping typically involved pain, and though he had a high tolerance for it, he didn't seek it out. Traveling towards the light, to consciousness, meant the beginning of the circus. Who had taken him? What did they want? If they didn't want anything at all, he wouldn't still be drawing breath. That was a comforting thought at least. 

A groan. 

It sounded wrong. It didn't come from Luthor's throat. 

He forced his eyes open, squinting as they adjusted to harsh fluorescents overhead. A figure in front of him. Blue. Broad. Clark.

Kent winced and moaned as he struggled in his own constraints. 

"Clark..." 

The young man's green eyes snapped open, laser focused on his own. "Lex? What happened? What's going on?" 

"I don't know," Lex said, keeping his voice even and free from panic.

Panic flitted across Clark's face and Lex had the fleeting thought that even with a look of terror, the young man looked like an angel. The only problem was, Clark was the angel who typically saved him...so if he was stuck here too...

Clark in turn wondered which of them this was about. Being a billionaire with a target perpetually glued to his back, Lex could very well be the reason they're stuck here. Then again, with his own multitude of secrets, perhaps this was a plan to extort his own power. But the two of them caught here together? That didn't make a whole lot of sense. 

He wanted to analyze the situation, figure out what the hell was going on, but a stabbing pain at his wrists kept his analytical prowess trapped behind primal pain response. It was almost impossible to keep his face schooled into thinly veiled concern, rather than distorted in anguish. 

There was kryptonite on the wrist restraints that kept them flat to the metal chair. Lex's chair was the same. Was it a fluke or had someone figured out his secret? 

Sweat began beading on his skin and dripping down his face. 

"Do you remember where you were last?" Clark asked.

Lex thought about it, shaking his head slightly. "Last I remember, I was at home in my study. How about you?" 

Clark reached into his mind to pull out the answer, but didn't like it. Last he remembered he was skulking around Lex's mansion, trying to listen in on the billionaire's conversation about rehabilitating meteor freaks. 

He looked up, realizing he'd taken too long to answer, and whatever he came up with to tell Lex other than the truth would be seen for the lie that it was.

"I was at the mansion."

Lex's brows lowered. "Why?"

"I wanted to see you," he said quickly and honestly. 

"We haven't spoken in months Clark. Our friendship is over. Why would you want to see me?" 

The brunette hung his head and felt the cool breeze of his own breath moving across his damp t-shirt. 

"Excellent question," an unfamiliar voice said. A man walked into the room, his hair was black and disheveled and his eyes shone with a craze that belonged to someone not quite right in the head. 

"What the hell is this?" Lex shot. 

"Oh Lex, don't you want the answer to your last question? I would be curious to hear the answer." The man moved over to Clark and pulled out a switch blade. Lex's mouth opened, prepared to use the only weapon he had left - reason - words. Kent jerked back, his eyes wide, but the metal chair he was strapped to didn't move. "Don't be so skittish little Clark," the man laughed. He hit the switch and the blade popped out. "I'm just taking your shirt off." 

He started at the bottom of the blue cotton and sliced upward. Then he cut each sleeve and removed the bright blue altogether. 

"Why are you doing this?" 

"No, no, I'm the one with the questions, and you're the ones with the answers. And since both of you are so prone to lying, I'm hooking you up to this device," he turned and disappeared. 

Clark was breathing fast, watching as Lex's eyes traveled over his face and then down his chest. Shit. The scar that Jor-El had given him...

The man returned with two machines. He pulled one close to Clark and began undoing wires and electrodes. 

By the time his fingers stopped moving around Clark, the farmboy had EKG electrodes stuck on his chest, a curled wire wrapped around Clark's chest...a pulse/ox monitor on his finger...

"Now let's establish a baseline."

"But..."

"Oh, and if you and/or Lex are foolish enough to ask me any more questions, you will suffer," he smiled, cutting Clark off. 

"First question," he clapped his hands together gleefully. "It should be easy enough....what's your name? First and last please," the deranged man adjusted some knobs and then stepped back.

"Clark Kent."

The monitor spiked and made a noise. The man tilted his head. "Curious. Lying already?" 

"What?" Clark screeched, I'm not lying!" 

"The monitor says you are. And for every lie, you will receive one of these," he pulled a rectangular device from his back pocket and hit something on it. 

Immediately, a roiling wave of unbearable pain coursed through Clark's body. It felt as though he couldn't breathe, as if every nerve of his body was brought to life by Kryptonite. All he could register was his own body shaking, begging for the pain to stop. And it did. 

"That was an electric volt. Punishment for lying. Let's try again! This time...telling the truth."

Clark's heavy breathing filled the small space. Sweat rolled in rivers down his heaving chest and his pleading eyes went to Lex. Luthor's mouth opened, then closed.

"What is your name?"

Clark was silent for a moment, his eyes darting around for answers. "Time is ticking young Kent..."

It clicked in his pain addled brain. "Kal-El."

The monitor remained steady.

Lex's brow was furrowed in confusion.

"Great, now let's get Mr. Luthor here set up."

The man dragged the other monitor to Lex, removed his shirt and hooked him up to the machine.

"What is your name?" he said clinically. 

"Le...Alexander Luthor," he replied. The monitor remained steady. 

"Great, now the fun can really begin!"

"Before it does...is there a chance of getting a drink of water?" Lex asked boldly. The man looked perturbed, but acquiesced. He left the room to fetch the liquid. 

"Lex..." Clark spoke the name like a prayer. He twisted his wrists in the constraints and watched as bruises formed. 

"It's okay Clark."

"How can you be so calm?" 

"I'm not. But panicking only makes this worse, trust me, I'm a veteran when it comes to being kidnapped."

"So am I," the words left Clark's mouth before his teeth could cage them in. He tried to justify it with, "weird stuff happens in Smallville. But I don't like this Lex. This is..."

"Different than your other kidnappings?" Lex jested. 

Actually, it was. This wasn't being sucked into a cave wall and held captive for three months by your biological father. This was a stranger, a potential psycho, probably with little to nothing to lose. 

Clark swallowed, the action painful. He wanted to tell Lex things...things like, 'I'm scared,' 'I want to go home,' 'I don't have my powers and I can't save us without them.' 

"What is it Clark?" Lex ventured, seeing the turning gears behind the emerald gaze. 

"I'm all my mom has left."

"We'll survive Clark. If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead already."

Kent shook his head and in a whisper said, "I don't want to see you suffer." 

Lex didn't have time for a retort because the nutcase was back. He tilted a glass of water for Clark to drink, then did the same for Lex. 

"Enough stalling...let's get on with the fun." 

What if this guy asked Clark about his secret? What if he asked about his and Lex's relationship? What if the things he found out through the course of this interrogation meant he'd end up killing him or Lex?" 

"Relax, relax," the stranger was talking to him. Apparently, Clark hadn't realized that his little internal panic attack reflected itself on the monitor. "You're just a mess aren't you?" the man tinkered with the monitor. "Your stats are showing that you are in a considerable amount of pain. And the readings are accurate. Curious." 

Clark's nostrils widened, struggling to take in more air and calm down. 

"Are you in pain Clark?" 

He couldn't lie. 

"Yes." 

"I didn't hurt you bringing you in, I know that much." 

Please don't ask. Please don't ask. Please don't ask. Clark closed his eyes and shifted in the chair, feeling every point of contact between the kryptonite and his body, searing like skewers. 

"Get on with asking what you're gonna ask." 

Lex expected the man to fly off the handle with that insolence, but he only smiled. 

"How long have you known Lex?" he asked. 

"Since freshman year, when I pulled him out of the river."

"You saved his life?" 

"Yes."

"How many times have you saved his life since you've met him?" 

Shit. Shitshitshitshit.

"I honestly don't know."

"Take a guess," he leaned into Clark's space, brown eyes boring holes into him.

1) the bridge 2) when he was kidnapped 3) the fire in the mansion 4) the tunnels... the list went on. Clark honestly couldn't remember all of the times. He was scared that the monitor would beep. 

"Well?" 

"I don't know...maybe a dozen times," he answered, closing his eyes, preparing for the beep, but it never came. Still, his face flushed red from feeling Lex's gaze upon him. Lex had to be confused. He just thought he had miraculous luck - but he didn't - he had Clark.

"Did you know he's saved you that much?" the man looked at Lex.

"No." 

"And you two were friends?" 

"Yes." 

"But not anymore?" 

"No." 

"Why not?" 

Lex hesitated, unsure of how to answer. "Clark lied too much."

"But didn't you lie to him too?" 

Clark could see the muscles of Luthor's jaw working, he was backed into a corner and didn't like it. "Yes, I did. He didn't trust me enough with his secrets, so why should he get mine?" 

The man stood up, walked to the table that separated Clark and Lex and rested his hands on it. "Hmm, I suppose that's fair." 

"Who are you and why are you doing this?" Clark asked. 

A jolt of voltage coursed through him and through his closing eyes, he saw alarm written on Lex's face. "Uhm, I told you not to ask questions Clark. Although I do suppose you need some sort of name to call me. Let's go with Damian." 

The volt only lasted about four seconds but it felt like an eternity. When it was over, tears were spilling from Clark's eyes. They would have travelled in a straight path down his chest, but the mark's raised lines got in the way. 

"How did you get that, that burn," Damian pointed, "on your chest?" 

"This questioning feels a bit one-sided," Clark sneered at him, then looked at Lex who was avoiding the hot seat entirely. 

"You will answer me when I ask you a question," Damian's fist was the deliverer of pain this time. A gold ring he wore on his ring finger split Clark's lip open. 

When the ringing stopped in his head, he thought of how to answer. "It was burned into my chest."

"By whom?" 

Fuck.

"My father." 

"What? No way, Jonathan wouldn't hurt you," Lex chimed in, shocked that the monitor didn't denote a lie. 

"Hmm..." Damian rubbed his chin and then had an 'aha' moment. "Is Jonathan your father?" 

"Yes and no."

"Coy little bugger aren't you? What's the name of this father who hurt you?" 

"Jor-El." 

"Is he your biological father?" 

"Yes," Clark gritted.


	2. Chapter 2

"So Clark was abused..."

"Shut up." The physical pain that Clark felt paled in comparison to the potential for emotional wounds to be dealt by this asshole.

"Looks like I've hit a nerve. I'd like to know...how else he's hurt you. Has he hit you?" 

Images like a bad dream came rushing to Clark. Jor-El above him, fists bloodied, shark-tooth grin parting so that condescending remarks could come tumbling out. 

"Yes." 

"Is he verbally abusive?" 

"Yes."

"A worse father than Lionel Luthor, you think?" 

"Yes." 

"Did he ever hurt you in any other ways?" 

Something twisted in Clark's gut, it felt like a knife, but he had yet to be stabbed. Panic rose in his throat and his heart felt as though it was trying to escape. His stats began going haywire on the monitor. 

"Yes. Leave it..." his eyes fixed somewhere off in the corner, vision melting into the gray cinderblocks. "Please." 

Damian nodded and sauntered over to Lex. "And you thought you had it bad, eh?" he patted Lex's bare shoulders. 

"I wonder...why are you so desperate to know Clark's secrets?" he leaned, forearms bearing down on Lex's shoulders and it made his skin crawl. 

"I'm not desperate to know Clark's secrets, I was desperate for him to trust me. To care about me enough to let me in."

"I do care," Clark shot. 

"I would have to side with Clark on this one."

"And what the fuck do you know Damian?" 

Lex saw the flash of silver before the pain hit. It felt like going 12 rounds in a ring, or being hit by a car, the pain slicing through reality and making time stand still. As the voltage receded, he gasped, tears pouring down his cheeks as he flashed back to Belle Reeve. 

"You're familiar with shocks, aren't you Lex?" the psycho played with the little panel in his hands. "Daddy had you put in Belle Reeve and zapped, didn't he?" 

"Yes," Lex answered quickly. 

The man then looked from Clark to Lex and back. "You thought Clark would save you, didn't you?" 

Luthor's lip quivered, and he felt more hatred for this man than any other on earth. 

"Yes, I thought he would." 

"You resent him for not saving you when you needed him the most, don't you?" 

Lex strained forward, the word ripped from his chest as he pulled with all his strength. "Yes," he spat. 

"So...Clark...did you even try to save Lex?" 

Kent's eyes were suddenly very wide and very sad, like a deer caught in headlights. "Yes." 

"How far did you get in saving him?" 

Clark bit his lip and swallowed. He never. Ever. Intended on telling Lex any of this. He wanted to rip his arms off and leave them behind in the chair just to escape. 

"I...I made it as far as..." his voice faltered. 

"Keep going."

"I put his arm over my shoulder and got him outside...but..."

"You failed didn't you? You tried to save Lex, but you failed spectacularly, didn't you?" 

He breathed out, but it came as a sob. He'd spent so many sleepless nights torturing himself over his inability to save Lex...all because he had to go and take stupid Red K and run away to Metropolis and work for a drug dealer. It cost him Lex's safety, sanity and wellbeing. It cost him Lex.

"Yes," he choked. "I tried," his voice split. 

"Why didn't you tell Lex your secrets, Clark?" 

Kent was shaking, muscle vibrating from his hands down to his toes, blood dribbling down his chin and chest, Kryptonite draining him. 

"I wanted to protect him. I thought I could save his life by not telling him. It was never about a lack of trust. I wanted to keep him...but by not telling him, I just ended up losing him anyway. I thought if I let him go, that it would be easier," he was crying now, open and ugly crying. He couldn't even look at Lex.

"And what did Lex do? Why, he stole your love of course," Damian looked at Luthor who was barely keeping the tears back now. "Did you even love Lana?" 

"Yes."

Beep.

Zap.

"Try again. Did you even love Lana?" 

"I wanted to...but no." 

"Ah, there's the truth. So why Lana?" 

"To hurt Clark. To keep him in my orbit."

Damian nodded, and stretched his arms. 

"Now there's just the three hundred pound elephant in the room...what is your secret, Clark?" 

Kent's blood ran cold and drained from his face. He made fists and tried to move his arms, but his veins spiked green and pain shot through him. There was no escaping this. But there may be a way around it, he thought. Damian asked Clark what his secret was. Not what his biggest secret was... maybe there was a way to get out of this without revealing to both of these men that he was an alien. 

His panic settled like dust floating to the floor, and a calmness swept over him. He took a steadying breath, despite the urge to vomit or scream or cry. 

"Well?"

His head was down, but he looked up through long brown eyelashes at Lex. "My secret...is that..." he swallowed down the terror, "I love Lex."

Damian looked confused, his dark features rearranging into disapproval.

"Are you IN love with Lex?"

"Yes."

"You want him?" 

"Yes." 

"You've thought of fucking him? You've held your cock and imagined it was his mouth? Fucked yourself and dreamed that it would be Lex's cock sinking into you?" 

"Yes," his voice shook. His eyes were ground shut, heart beating wildly, he wondered if the world would fly apart. The monitor never beeped though. 

"Everything I've done - tried to do - has been to protect Lex. Has been because I'm worried about Lex. I don't want either of us to turn out like our...biological...father's. We're better than that, than them. I don't want Lex to lose himself to obsession or power or darkness." 

"I see," Damian picked at his nails. "But what if Lex has already crossed that line into darkness?"

"Have you ever killed anyone Lex?" 

Luthor didn't answer, didn't want to answer. 

"Yes."

"So have I," Clark retorted, finally braving a glance at Lex's huge gray eyes. "The past can't be changed, but the future can be."

"And what if Lex never bought into your light vs dark schtick? What if he kept doing bad things? Would you still love him?" 

Silence. Heavy as a skyscraper, loud as a stampede. 

"I don't think I could ever stop loving Lex." 

"Even if he experimented on meteor freaks?" 

Clark gulped. 

"Because you have right? Experimented on meteor freaks?" 

Luthor's eyes fell. "Yes." 

"And that's what you are, isn't it Clark? A meteor freak?" 

Clark looked him dead in the eyes and said firmly, "no," and the monitor didn't waver. 

"But you have powers?" 

Clark's mind raced with the mantra of, 'find another loophole and fast,' and he did. Right now he was powerless. 

"No." The monitor didn't beep. 

Damian took a deep breath in, clearly losing his resolve.

"You think if I could get out of this chair and smash your face in right now, that I wouldn't? You think I'd have even let you take Lex or I if I had any power?" 

Damian stood, put his hands behind his head, paced, then stopped, screamed and hit the wall. 

It was all about asking the right questions, and Damian clearly didn't know what those were. So Clark thought.

"I saw you walk through fire, you shit," he pointed his finger at Clark's face. Damian stared at him, then looked at the monitor and back. Something like realization dawned on his features and it sent a shiver down Clark's cold spine. "Your stats...they reveal that you're in pain right now. What's causing that pain?" 

Fuck. Now he was fucked. He couldn't answer. 

"Answer me," Damian screamed, hitting the switch. 

He heard Lex scream, "stop it!" but the pain continued for several more seconds. Clark knew that if he told Damian, he'd be a dead man. 

"TELL ME!" 

Another burst of voltage, this time higher. Clark's body shook so violently that it rattled the chair which was bolted to the floor.

"No..."

"Then I'll hit Lex..." 

"NO!" 

He watched helplessly as Lex's pale body convulsed under the voltage. "STOP!" 

The voltage cut off and Damian turned his menacing face towards Clark's. "Then tell me!" 

Clark's mouth opened, then closed. Damian sprang into action, fingers pressing the device, delivering more electricity to Lex's body and it gave Clark an idea. 

"Red Kryptonite" he screamed, between the strength of his voice, Lex's scream and the voltage's buzz and hiss, Damian didn't hear Clark's monitor beep. 

"Finally..." he grinned, "so that's what hurts you." 

"There must be some of it nearby," Clark continued the lie. Except...now he wasn't lying. He knew they were in Smallville and that there really must be some red K nearby - so his monitor didn't beep. 

"See, it wasn't that hard to be honest, was it." Thank God for rhetorical questions. 

"You know...I was just going to take Lex...but then I saw you. I figured that neither Lex nor his father would respond to hostage ransoms. But I knew...I just knew...that if Lex had to watch you suffer, he would crack. I never knew what the deal was between you two, but I knew there was something. I had the feeling that he would bend heaven and earth to make sure you were safe, and I bet he would," he glared at Lex. "But you've proven far more interesting than Lex ever could. You're powerful, aren't you Clark?" 

"Not at the moment."

"That day on the bridge..."

Clark's eyes went wide. "Lex...no..."

Luthor hesitated. Desperately he wanted to ask if he hit Clark at 60 miles an hour. He thought he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear the words.. But getting that answer would mean revealing more of Clark's secret to this whack job. There was real fear scrawled across Clark's face now. 

"That day on the bridge...was giving me CPR your first kiss?" 

Color came back into Clark's face. He had been holding his breath and finally let it out. "Yes...but your lips were cold, unmoving. Scared me to death." 

"How touching," Damian crowed. Silence descended upon the trio a second time, but this time, it was broken by a maniacle laugh. Damian was laughing. 

"You still don't even know who I am, do you Luthor?" 

Lex swallowed. People who typically asked him that question weren't happy customers. 

"I was in your Genesis project," the captor revealed. 

It didn't mean anything to Clark, but Lex's body suddenly went very still.

"I was tortured because of you. Because you agreed to help the military try to make super soldiers."

Clark had a sick feeling in his stomach. 

"I was just a number to you. Someone you picked out of a catalog because you thought I would be compatible - but guess what? I wasn't. My body rejected everything they did to it at LuthorCorp." 

"Damian," Clark tried.

"SHUT UP!" he ran his hands over his face to compose himself and when he spoke again, it was deadly calm. "I was tortured by scientists in your employ. Kept in a cage like an animal. The recipient of far more pain than these little bug bite zaps."

"How is taking us going to fix what's happened to you?" 

Clark knew as soon as the words left his mouth that the zap was coming. This one was the strongest yet though, and it lasted. His vision darkened as he heard Lex screaming for Damian to stop. When the current did cease, blood ran from Clark's nose and ears. His head lulled back with a thud as he tried to cling to consciousness. 

"I think you need some time," Damian said. "Time to reflect on what you've done. Time to wonder what I'm going to do with you. With Clark. Maybe it'll be a night, or two, or three, or a month, or a year. For now, let's start with tonight," Damian removed the cords and wires on both of them, wrapped everything neatly up and left the room, wheeling the monitors out with him, the silver control device in his back pocket. He was gone. They were left in a windowless, cinderblock room with one light. 

Panic flared in Lex's chest, but he breathed through it. "Clark...Clark..."

The young man wouldn't stir, but he could see through the rise and fall of his chest that he was still alive. 

"CLARK!" 

A groan. He lulled his head to one side and hissed. 

Lex breathed a sigh of relief. 

Kent lifted his heavy head and squinted across at Lex, then down. "Shit," he breathed, as the smell of urine filled the small space.

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be." 

Clark's eyes felt so heavy. His soul felt drained. He wanted to climb back into the cave walls and stay there. 

A loud click sound echoed off the walls and Clark felt his hands slumping into his lap. The shackles were off, he wasn't attached to the chair anymore. Neither was Lex. 

Luthor stood, pushed the flimsy metal table between them away and wobbled to Clark. "Let's get you out of this chair," he said, pulling Clark to stand. The 6'4 twenty year old swayed and slumped heavily against Lex. When he could better control his limbs now that there was some distance between he and the Kryptonite, he wrapped his arms around Lex.


End file.
